Courts with jurisdiction - Matrimonial matters.

COURTS WITH JURISDICTION – MATRIMONIAL MATTERS

Previously there were three stand-alone Divorce Courts (Central, North Eastern and the Southern Divorce Court) which heard divorce related matters exclusively. These courts were integrated into the Regional Civil Jurisdiction by the Jurisdiction of Regional Courts Amendment Act, 2008 (Act 31 of 2008). There is now concurrent jurisdiction  between with the 63 Regional seats and their relevant High Courts. This initiative facilitates greater access to courts to hear divorce matters and the parties can now choose the court that is closest to the area where they live to initiate divorce related matters.

High courts

A high court has jurisdiction in its own area over all persons residing or present in that area.

These courts hear matters that are of such a serious nature that the lower courts would not be competent to make an appropriate judgment or to impose a penalty.

Except where a minimum or maximum sentence is prescribed by law, their penal jurisdiction is unlimited and includes handing down a sentence of life imprisonment in certain specified cases.There are 13 high courts:

• Eastern Cape High Court, Grahamstown
• Eastern Cape High Court, Port Elizabeth
• Eastern Cape High Court, Mthatha
• Eastern Cape High Court, Bhisho
• Free State High Court, Bloemfontein
• North Gauteng High Court, Pretoria
• South Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg
• KwaZulu-Natal High Court, Pietermaritzburg
• KwaZulu-Natal High Court, Durban
• Limpopo High Court, Thohoyandou
• Northern Cape High Court, Kimberley
• North West High Court, Mahikeng
• Western Cape High Court, Cape Town.

Regional courts

Regional courts are established largely in accordance with provincial boundaries with a regional court division for each province to hear matters within their jurisdiction. There are nine regional court presidents and 351 regional court magistrates.

Regional courts hear most serious matters, including murder and rape but excluding treason. The penal jurisdiction of regional courts were increased and, similarly to the high courts, regional courts may pass life sentences.

The regional courts will, by virtue of the Jurisdiction of Regional Courts Amendment Act, 2008 (Act 31 of 2008) [PDF], adjudicate over civil disputes. The Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, with effect from August 2010, established a court for each regional division for the purposes of adjudicating over civil disputes. In addition, the Minister appointed within each regional division the places (64 in total) of holding court for adjudicating civil disputes. The divorce courts were subsumed under the regional-court divisions. The divorce court rules made under Section 10(4) of the Administration Amendment Act, 1929 (Act 9 of 1929), were repealed from 15 October 2010. The regional courts therefore started adjudicating divorce matters from 15 October 2010. This has addressed the jurisdictional challenges in terms of which litigants have to travel to remote courts to get legal redress.

The Jurisdiction of Regional Courts Amendment Act, 2008 [PDF]will, in the medium to long term, reduce the workload in the high courts. In this way, divorce and other family-law matters and civil disputes of an amount determined from time to time will be within the jurisdiction of regional courts. This means that attorneys will have the opportunity to represent their clients in matters where they ordinarily brief counsel, thus reducing the cost of litigation and increasing access to justice.